Instagram accounts reveal the personalities of their authors, according to the results of a study published on the Cornell University website. So much so that scientists have developed an algorithm that detects the depression on this social network with a success rate of 70%.
Researchers at Harvard University in the United States conducted a study with 166 volunteers who had Instagram accounts. All participants completed a series of questionnaires and a standard clinical test for depression.
Instagram uploads resulted in a database of more than 43,950 photographs that scientists analyzed. For each healthy user, the researchers chose the 100 most recent photographs. For depressed individuals, the researchers chose the 100 photographs published before their diagnosis.
Instagram reveals its users’ depression
The results showed that depressed people tend to display images that are blue, then gray, and darker and darker.
Indeed, Instagram offers a wide range of filters that give images a certain character and atmosphere. The study reveals that depressed people have a preferred filter.
“When depressed participants employed filters, they very disproportionately favored the ‘Inkwell’ filter, which converts color photographs to black and white images,” says Harvard University researcher Andrew Reece. In contrast, healthy people prefer a filter called Valencia, which illuminates the photographs ”.
With all this data, the researchers set up software capable of detecting the depression at 70%. More conclusive results than those obtained with medical consultations.
“These results support the idea that major changes in individual psychology are transmitted through social media and can be identified through computational method,” concludes Andrew Reece.
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